Bloxom, VA

Bloxom is an Accomack County town on Virginia's Eastern Shore, a few miles west of U.S. 13. The railroad reached town in 1884, turning a farming settlement into a produce-shipping point. The town was named for William Bloxom, its first postmaster, and its square was rented to the railroad for a dollar. By the early 1900s, the business district held a general store, hotel, restaurant, brick kiln, and four bars; later decades brought a school, banks, and a hardware-and-feed store.

Passenger service ended in 1952, and Bloxom incorporated in 1951. Today the town office is on Shoremain Drive, while the volunteer fire company remains one of the town's named institutions. The former Bay Coast Railroad corridor still runs through Bloxom, and Virginia's Eastern Shore Rail to Trail project follows that old route between Cape Charles and Hallwood. Bloxom's present-day feel comes from that overlap: a small residential town, an old produce-and-railroad center, and a rail corridor being given a new life for walkers and cyclists.